Telegram announced changes to its terms of service and privacy policy to prevent criminal use of the messaging app. Pavel Durov, its founder and CEO, confirmed that the service will report phone numbers and IP addresses of users who violate the rules when there are “valid legal requests” from the authorities.
The decision was announced just under a month after Durov was arrested in France, where the businessman is accused of several crimes, including complicity in administering an online platform that allows organized groups to carry out illegal transactions.
In addition to providing information about users who violate the rules when there is a valid legal requirement from the authorities, Telegram announced other changes to prevent the disclosure of “problematic content.” In this sense, it was mentioned stronger moderation in the application search results.
According to Pavel Durov, a dedicated team of moderators, in collaboration with AI-based tools, have detected and identified inappropriate content that is no longer accessible via the search engine. Likewise, the ability to report “illegal or unsafe” content via an account has been provided. @SearchReport.
“To further deter criminals from abusing Telegram search, we have updated our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to ensure consistency across the globe. We have made it clear that IP addresses and phone numbers of those who violate our rules may be disclosed to the appropriate authorities in response to valid legal requests.
These measures are meant to deter criminals. Telegram search is designed to find friends and news, not to promote illegal products. “We will not allow attackers to compromise the integrity of our platform for nearly one billion users.”
Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram
Telegram wants to avoid new episodes like the one in France
It is clear that with these changes Telegram is seeking to demonstrate its willingness to cooperate with the authorities when necessary and avoid new episodes like the one with Pavel Durov in France.The CEO himself said earlier this month that the claim that the app is some kind of “anarchist paradise” is untrue and that the service’s moderation teams remove millions of malicious messages and channels every day.
When the businessman was arrested in the Gallic lands, public opinion was divided. Some thought his arrest was right, as they believed that Telegram had become a platform full of fraud, illegal drug and arms trafficking, and even the distribution of child pornography, and that there should be accountability for this. Others, meanwhile, accused France of using the procedure against Durov as a way to intimidate users of the messaging app and limit their freedom of expression.
Telegram said it was absurd to hold Pavel Durov responsible for the misuse of the app by some users. However, it is clear from the app doesn’t want to be in the spotlight again in the futureIt will be necessary to see how users react to the changes in the terms of service and privacy policy regarding the delivery of information to authorities.
In addition to illegal or problematic content, Telegram has recently made headlines in Ukraine, where officials and soldiers were recently banned from using the app on official mobile phones. This is because an intelligence investigation suggests that Russia can infiltrate the platform to read messages — even those that have since been deleted — and obtain personal information from accounts.
Source: Hiper Textual
I’m Ben Stock, a highly experienced and passionate journalist with a career in the news industry spanning more than 10 years. I specialize in writing content for websites, including researching and interviewing sources to produce engaging articles. My current role is as an author at Gadget Onus, where I mainly cover the mobile section.
